Sports ministry holds virtual meeting with 11 NSFs, discusses future plans

New Delhi, April 16: Continuing its dialogue with various stakeholders, the sports ministry on Thursday held a meeting with 11 more National Sports Federations (NSFs) and discussed their future plans, keeping in mind the Tokyo Olympics and beyond.

The meeting, held through video conference, was the most recent of a series of dialogues planned by the ministry with various NSFs amid the coronavirus-forced national lockdown.

The ministry had already interacted through a video conference with officials of Hockey India, National Rifle Association of India and Wrestling Federation of India, among others.

"These are routine meetings between the ministry and the NSFs which are now held via video conference because of the pandemic. We already had the first series of meetings with some federations last week and today's one is a continuation of this initiative," a ministry official told PTI.

During Thursday's meeting, Sports Secretary Radhey Shyam Julaniya held discussions with two officials each from the national federations of handball, tennis, squash, basketball, Special Olympics Bharat, volleyball, wushu, yachting, kayaking and canoeing, kabaddi and All India University (AIU).

"We had already had a discussion with 15 NSFs earlier and today we carried on the process and interacted with 11 more NSFs," Julaniya told PTI.

"We had normal discussions on their (NSFs) future plans and ACTC (Annual Calendar for Training and Competitions)."

An NSF representative, who attended the meeting with Julaniya, said the ministry took stock of their future planning now that the Olympics have been delayed.

"Every NSF was also asked about their expectations from the next Asian Games. The preparations and target for 2024 and 2028 Olympics also came up for discussion," he said.

The official also said that the ministry asked the NSFs to work towards developing a training programme for coaches and creating centres of excellence for their respective sports.

Meanwhile, with an aim to upgrade the knowledge of coaches across the country in all leading disciplines, the Sports Authority of India (SAI) also started a massive programme online on Thursday, in association with NSFs.

SAI coaches, coaches of SAI accredited sports academies, recommended by NSFs and state governments from all over the country will attend these sessions to be addressed by Dronacharya awardees, Arjuna awardees, Khel Ratna awardees, eminent Indian coaches and foreign experts.

On the opening day, more than 4700 coaches, including former athletes-turned coaches attended the sessions in archery, swimming, football, taekwondo, cycling, fencing, weightlifting, wrestling, judo, volleyball, gymnastics, table tennis, athletics, boxing and sports science. Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju, Union Minister and Archery association of India president Arjun Munda addressed the coaches.

"Skill upgradation is a very important aspect of coaching. This initiative will ensure that coaches learn from the best minds of their discipline and they can implement the learnings from these sessions for better results while training athletes," Rijijiu said.

The extensive online coach development programme called MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) is an intensive 21-day programme designed for coaches at all levels. The programme is open to 100 coaches at a time for any given session, allowing High Performance Directors to assess each participant's individual needs and interests to create a customised learning experience.

On the first day eminent coaches including Sanjeeva Singh of archery, Kamlesh Mehta of table tennis and Partha Pratim Majumder of swimming conducted the sessions.

Hockey sessions will start from April 20. Each session will have three components -- a 20-minute lecture, 20-minute demonstration with video link and a 20-minute interaction with a view to generate more interest and to promote participation.

External evaluators will monitor the sessions regularly and will provide constant feedback, analysis and suggestions for improvement.